The Florida Panthers traveled to Massachusetts for the first two games of the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs eager to prove they could play with the Boston Bruins, even though the Bruins set a single-season record for wins and the Panthers didn’t qualify for the playoffs until the final days of the regular season.
They did it in Game 1 by playing a tight, highly competitive game in Boston on Monday and did even more in Game 2 on Wednesday. Florida never trailed, didn’t give up a single even-strength goal and blew away the Bruins in the third period to stun the Presidents’ Trophy winners, 6-3.
Goaltender Alex Lyon, starting his 10th straight game, was again spectacular, making 34 saves on 37 shots. Center Sam Bennett, back from a 13-game injury absence, set a new tone with seven shots and the opening goal. Star defenseman Brandon Montour scored twice during the Panthers’ third-period avalanche and Florida will go back to Sunrise with the series tied 1-1.
The 42-point gap in the standings between Boston and Florida was the biggest in 27 years for a first-round series, and the Panthers — the second wild card in the Eastern Conference who didn’t even qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs until last week — are in control after stealing away home-ice advantage from the Bruins.
If Florida just wins its three home games at FLA Live Arena, it will pull off one of the biggest upsets in NHL history.
Even though the Panthers scored six goals, the win started with Lyon, who had only played 31 NHL games in his career before taking over in net last month when star goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky was sick and is now the heart of the Panthers.
From the opening minutes, the crowd of 17,850 at TD Garden slowly chanted his last name — “Lyyyon! Lyyyon!” — just as it did after his one costly gaffe in the second period of Game 1, hoping, and certainly believing, the 30-year-old American would at some point start to look like the career minor-leaguer he always was until last month.
It hasn’t happened yet and it didn’t Wednesday. The goalie stopped the first 23 5-on-5 shots he faced until giving one up with a four-goal lead in the last two minutes and he kept Florida tied with Boston, 2-2, going into the third period despite continue special-teams woes for the Panthers.
By the third period, his play was almost even an afterthought. Montour scored in the first 30 seconds of the period and Florida, after getting outshot in each of the first two periods, outshot the Bruins, 10-8, in the third and built a four-goal lead before conceding once in garbage time.
